Author(s):

Kassahun Alula, Habtamu Zeleke and Muthuswamy Manikandan

Abstract: Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) is an important warm season crop that grows best in long, hot growing seasons, cultivated in over all developing countries as a valuable source of human food, animal feed and industrial raw material. Its yield is highly decreased due to disease in Eastern African Countries. Production of virus free sweet potato is of great potential to increase yield and improve the crop. In the present study, different treatments, each with a combination of (BAP and Kn) in a ratio 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0 and 0.25, 0.5, 0.5, 0.75 and 0.0 mg/l (control) and auxin (IBA and NAA) in a ratio 0, 0.5, 0.5, 1.0, 1.0mg/l and 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.5 and 1.0mg/l in combination respectively were used for three varieties (Beletech, Awassa-83 and Belela) to optimize the concentrations of BAP, Kn, IBA and NAA in MS basal media for meristem culture. The experiment was laid out in CRD with three replications in factorial arrangement. Among the growth regulator combinations tested 0.5mg/l BAP with 0.5mg/l Kn followed by 0.75mg/l BAP with 0.5mg/l Kn were best for all shoot induction and growth parameters for the three varieties. The minimum days to root induction was recorded for Beletech (3.167days) shoots cultured on media supplemented with 0.5mg/l IBA with 0.5mg/l NAA and Awassa-83 (3.83days) shoots cultured on media supplemented with 1.0mg/l IBA and 0.5mg/l NAA. Whereas, the variety Belela shoots have induced in (3.83 days) on media with 1.0mg/l IBA with 1.0mg/l NAA. Maximum number of roots per shoot were recorded on MS media supplemented with a combination of 1.0mg/l IBA with 0.5mg/l NAA (11.7) followed by (9.3) on media with 0.75mg/l IBA with 0.5mg/l NAA respectively. The maximum root length was observed for Beletech (3.4cm) followed by Awassa-83 (3.43cm) cultured on the media with a combination of IBA 0.75mg/l with NAA 0.5mg/l. The results indicated that better response was obtained for root related parameters of all variety shoots transferred for rooting on media supplemented with 0.5mg/l IBA with 0.5mg/l NAA and above up to 1.0mg/l IBA with 0.5mg/l NAA. During acclimatization, 90%, for Beletech and 80% for Awassa-83 and Belela varieties survival was obtained.

Pages: 2386-2392  |  4149 Views  2599 Downloads

Download (640KB)